So I should stop.
Jackie is back at her university on Monday morning, but she texts me bright and early.
Jackie: Did I leave my red jacket there?
I search around and find it on the floor of her closet.
Me: Yup
Jackie: danggggg. I love that jacket!
I roll my eyes and continue getting ready for school. I’m usually pretty laid back. I’m a jeans and ponytail type of girl, but now that Zane is driving me to school, I find myself doing my makeup and choosing cute outfits. It’s exhausting. That’s just another reason I should stop riding to school with him. Then I can go back to being a lazy slob.
My phone pings again.
Jackie: have fun riding to school with lover boy!
She’s been calling him that ever since she found out he asked me to ride with him on his first day of school. She has absolutely no reason to call him that because I’ve given her zero indication that I’m crushing on him. But it probably doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that I am crushing on him. Hard.
Ugh.
Me: I won’t be riding with him much longer. I’m about to tell him I can’t do it anymore.
Jackie: What? WHY?
Me: Because I prefer to walk to school.
It’s a lie, but who cares? The truth is humiliating. The truth is that Zane is adorable and sweet and fun to be around and if I spend one more second with him I’ll probably burst into tiny little pieces of sadness. Zane is popular. It’s only been a week and he’s all anyone talks about. Popular guys don’t like me.
I grab a chocolate chip muffin from the kitchen and walk out the front door, eating as I go. I sit on my porch like I normally do, but this time I’m going to walk over there and tell him I can’t ride to school with him today. I’m too awkward to go knock on his door, so I’ll just wait until he walks outside. I check the time on my phone. He should be out here in two minutes.
I scarf down the rest of the muffin and then wait in silence, the only noise the pounding of my nervous heart.
When Zane’s front door opens, he steps out looking like some kind of A-list celebrity. My heart finds a way to beat even faster, which I hadn’t thought was possible. He glances over and smiles at me. “Morning,” he says.
All I have to do is smile back and tell him I’ll be walking to school today. It’s super easy. Just a few words.
Then he holds out a paper coffee cup with a plastic lid. I realize there are two in his hands. “I made you Mexican hot chocolate,” he says, taking a sip of his own cup. “Trust me, it’s amazing.”
Oh gosh. He made me a drink.
I cross the grass and take the cup he holds out to me, my resolve to cancel our rides totally gone. “Thank you,” I say, tipping the cup to my lips. It’s freaking delicious. A cold front blew in last night, so it’s chilly this morning, and this drink is perfect for the autumn weather.
Zane cocks his head at me. “Everything okay?”
I nod. “Yep.”
Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll cancel our rides.
* * *
When school is over,I wander out into the hallways in a daze. We watched a movie in my last class and the dark classroom combined with a boring movie made me nearly fall asleep. I yawn, blinking a few times while people rush past me and into the parking lot. My last class is very close to the parking lot, but Zane’s last class is in the athletic hallway way across school. I have to wait a few minutes for him, which is also another reason to just walk home and stop these rides.
“Zara!” The voice comes from my best friend, Krissy. She stays late three days a week for all of the clubs she’s involved in, so I’m surprised to see her walking up to me. She looks anxious, which is unusual for my happy-go-lucky best friend. “Can you believe this crap?”
“What crap?” I say.
She swings a finger toward the wall. The first thing I see is the pale pink poster Krissy made in my honor and taped to the wall. She spent an entire weekend making these glittery things that urge people to vote for me. I’d told her she was silly because it’s pretty obvious I’ll be crowned homecoming queen. Everyone knows me, and everyone knows my family’s history of winning this dumb football honor.
